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Date
: 16/06/2006
Source: Department of Transport
Title: Radebe: Youth Day
Keynote address by the national Minister of Transport, Honourable
Jeff Radebe, at the Youth Day commemoration and 30th anniversary of
the June 16 Soweto and Connected Uprisings, Popo Molefe Soccer
Stadium, Merafong Local Municipality
Programme Director and North West Provincial Commissioner, Ms
Connie Modiba
North West Premier, Mme Edna Molewa
MECs and Members of the Provincial Legislature present
North West Provincial Youth Commission Chairperson, Mr Kabelo
Mataboge and Provincial Youth Commissioners
The Executive Mayor of the Merafong Local Municipality, Cllr
Desmond van Rooyen
District Mayors, Mayors and Speakers of Municipalities
present
Our Honoured Traditional Leaders
Leaders of our Faith-Based Organisations,
Organised Business and Labour
Members of our Law Enforcement Agencies
Members of the Media
Young People of the North West Province
Ba Gaetsho Dumelang!
It is an extreme honour and privilege to be given an opportunity to
speak to all of you my young friends and peers in the province, the
youth, on this watershed 30th anniversary of the June 16 Soweto and
Connected Uprisings, whose appropriate theme is “Age of Hope:
Deepening Youth Participation in Development”.
On this memorable historical day, as we have done over the years
since the advent of our democracy, we salute and remember all those
who suffered and perished in the struggle that young people across
the country embarked upon against apartheid and its most visible
symbol then, the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction
in black schools in 1976.
Today, as we have done over the years, we dip our collective
banners in honour of all those young men and women, including
Hector Peterson, Tsietsi Mashinini and Mbuyisa Makhubu and many
others, who paid the ultimate price so that you and I, the youth of
today are able to enjoy the fruits of liberation and
democracy.
On this important day, we also reaffirm our commitment to
developing the youth of our province and our country to its full
potential, in the firm belief that they hold the future of our
young democracy, our young nation and our growing economy in their
hands.
At the same time as we commemorate this important day today, many
of our young people’s imagination is captivated by the
phenomenal spectre of the stars, the sheer talent and skills being
displayed at the 2006 FIFA Soccer World Cup in Germany over the
coming weeks.
In all our townships, dorps and villages thousands of mothers and
fathers are hoping that come 2010 their sons will become the next
Ronaldinho of Brazil, the next Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast, Lionel
Messi of Argentina, Essien and Appia of Ghana, Wayne Rooney of
England, Mantorras of Angola or Michael Ballack of the host nation
Germany.
However, one thing certain about this year’s World Cup in
Germany is the abundance of young talent during this world’s
most spectacular soccer showpiece. This means, among other things,
that there will even be a greater need for young talent from our
own communities as we proudly host this next international football
competition in our own country in 2010. Are you thirsty to show the
world this talent? I think you are!
More than that, I am convinced that the youth of today deserve the
biggest chunk of development that will be as a result of our
hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Programme Director, the youth of this province are about infinitely
more than just fun. They are a complex, vibrant and ambitious
sector of our society whose aspirations differ from those of the
youth of 1976 and yet are driven by the same passion that drove the
youth of 76.
In the first place, we are fortunate that to be young today means
we are free to choose certain lifestyles over others, to move
freely across the length and breadth of our country and abroad, to
belong to any organisation or movement that fits our ideology, we
have a right to vote and determine who our public representatives
should be, we are growing up in a milieu that offers more
opportunities for young people than anytime in the history of our
country.
In other words, since 1994, millions of our young people across
South Africa have benefited from the many changes brought about by
democracy: the right to vote, freedom of speech, improved access to
housing, quality education, electricity, water and sanitation;
opportunities in the professions, sports, arts and culture, as well
as from the growing interaction with the continent of Africa and
the wider world.
In addition, we are growing up in the context of a rapidly
globalising world, one of whose prominent features is scientific
advancement as seen, among others, in the sphere of technology, the
global culture, the internet and the satellite. These are some of
the advances in human development that the youth of today have an
opportunity to take advantage of.
But, as all of us know, such freedom, democracy and advances come
with certain responsibilities and challenges, and it is to such
challenges facing our youth that I would now like to turn.
As the youth of today we have a responsibility to establish,
protect and strengthen the democracy that was won at the back of
the 1976 uprisings.
We have an obligation to continue to build and promote a culture of
human rights where human dignity, equality and respect for our
elderly, the women and our children are our defining
characteristics as a nation.
It is the responsibility of today’s youth to tackle
successfully and with the revolutionary fervour of 1976, the
challenges of violence and abuse of women as well as the moral
regeneration of our society. As young people of the province, it
also falls on our collective shoulders to eradicate poverty and
underdevelopment, as well as combat the HIV and AIDS
pandemic.
In the same way that the youth of 1976 demonstrated to the world
that they wanted to define for themselves their future, the youth
of today must collectively be in the forefront of the battle
against poverty, unemployment, underdevelopment and HIV and
AIDS.
There can be no better way of honouring all those who lost their
lives and limbs in the struggle for equality education and
democracy than rededicating ourselves to promoting and deepening
the involvement of young people in all aspects of
development.
As the whole nation takes stock of progress in the development of
young people since the advent of democracy, our Government will
intensify its Vuk’uzenzele programme through volunteer work
and community service by our young people.
During this year, the national government will set up 100 new youth
advisory centres across the country to enrol at least 10 000 young
people in the National Youth Service Programme.
Government will enrol 5 000 young volunteers to act as mentors to
vulnerable children across the country. Our Government will expand
the reach of the business support system to young people and
intensify the Provincial Youth Co-operatives Programme as well as,
in line with the National Youth Development Programme, complete the
review of youth development institutions in order to improve
service delivery to young people.
With the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South
Africa’s (AsgiSA) focus on the expansion of the small, medium
and micro enterprise sector and Broad-Based Black Economic
Empowerment (BBBEE), young people of this province will be in a
position to participate in fulfilling these AsgiSA
objectives.
Across the country and the North West Province, Government’s
micro-credit programmes continue to enable young people to access
financial assistance through the Apex Fund and Umsobomvu Youth Fund
(UYF) and to set up business enterprises. I am certain that some of
the successful young business people are celebrating with us
today.
Efforts to facilitate more placement in companies of unemployed
young people with skills on the UYF database will continue this
year and beyond. Government will continue to place high emphasis on
youth skills development in priority sectors. In particular, we
will increase the number of schools participating in the Dinaledi
Programme to improve graduate output in Mathematics and Science
learners to enable them to follow careers in the priority sectors
of our economy.
Finally, our Expanded Public Works Programme will continue to
provide skills development among young people so that they move
away from the Second Economy and are less and less drawn to a life
of crime and indolence.
Thirty years after the 1976 uprisings, we salute the contribution
of young people to the development of our country:
* as workers, students, professionals, entrepreneurs, musicians,
poets, fashion designers, sportspersons and activists in other
areas of endeavour
* as part of the officer corps and other ranks of our security
agencies, including those deployed in other parts of the continent
to assist in bringing peace and creating conditions for
development
* as public servants in various capacities, providing services to
society
* as young women and young men taking advantage of the
opportunities offered by democracy and contributing to the
development of our country.
And indeed, we salute the contribution of young people as future
leaders of our province and our country in all areas of
activity.
As we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the 1976 uprisings this
year, we also recall the struggles of many sectors that brought our
democracy including the 1956 Women’s March to the Union
Buildings, the 1946 Mineworkers’ Strike and the Bhambatha
Rebellion of 1906.
As we pay tribute to young people across the nation, we will
continue to look for leadership and guidance from the youth as we
steer our South African ship into the waters of democracy, growth,
development and prosperity.
Like the youth of 1976, today’s youth will never fail in its
mission to strengthen and protect our democracy, to promote Human
Rights, to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment, to combat HIV
and AIDS and fight violence against women and children. With these
words of one of Africa’s freedom fighters and revolutionary,
Amil Cabral: “Tell no Lies. Claim no Easy Victories!” I
wish all young people of the North West Province and indeed the
whole of South Africa a HAPPY 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE JUNE 16 AND
CONNECTED UPRISINGS!
Forward to deepening our Youth Participation in Development!
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